Saints get long-awaited win

Friday

May 29, 2009 at 2:00 AM

HAMPTON — It only took five hours, but the Saints are moving on in the playoffs.

RANDY BOOTH

HAMPTON — It only took five hours, but the Saints are moving on in the playoffs.

The third-seeded St. Thomas Aquinas girls tennis team knocked off No. 6 Hollis/Brookline, 5-4, on Thursday to give themselves a spot in the Class I semifinals. The Saints (13-2) will travel to play No. 2 Portsmouth today.

Rain forced the match to be moved from Woodman Park in Dover to the Tennis Barn in Hampton. Play started at 4 p.m., but only one court was immediately available. Two more courts opened up later to allow more matches to be played at one time. The last doubles match finished shortly after 9 p.m.

"It's tiring, but at least we get to go to bed tonight," said the Saints' Karina Menard. "We're going to wake up refreshed and ready to win."

The Saints clinched the victory in No. 2 doubles. Menard and Heather Trainer opened up a big 5-0 lead over the Cavaliers' Naomi Jefferson and Julia Stopera before winning the match, 8-3.

"We played competitive," said St. Thomas coach Marsha Clancy, "and I think the girls should hold their head up because they did a good job."

The semifinals matchup between the Saints and Clippers will be their third of the season (they each won once). It is also a rematch of last year's semifinal match, where the Saints won, 5-4.

"I feel like right now they're going to want it just as bad because we beat them the last time we played," Menard said. "I feel like we just need to not worry about the other team and just worry about what we want to do. Just one point at a time and don't think ahead."

St. Thomas was anchored by two dominate performances from its No. 1 singles player Julia Keenan. Keenan, a freshman, blanked Danika Rencken, 8-0, and then teamed up with Molly Megna to win No. 1 doubles over Rencken and Erica Tamposi, 8-0.

The Saints won the Class I championship last season, but it was a vastly different team full of seniors and a different coach. This season, the team's No. 1 singles player is a freshman and there are no seniors on the squad.

In No. 2 singles, Menard started down 1-0 against Jefferson. She quickly rebounded, coming back to win 8-4 to put St. Thomas up 2-0 in singles play.

"Last time we met, (Jefferson) lost 0-8 and this time it was 4-8," said Hollis/Brookline coach Charles Nedzbala. "I thought she had a real chance of winning, unfortunately she just didn't pull it out."

Nedzbala said the five-plus hours of tennis doesn't allow either team to get into any kind of rhythm.

"Your normal pattern is thrown off and you get antsy," he said. "I'm sure it plays a mental game, too. But that shouldn't be too hard to overcome."

But Hollis/Brookline (11-4) didn't go down as easily as St. Thomas may have liked. After trailing 6-5 in No. 3 singles, Cavaliers' Stopera came back against Megna to win, 8-6. It was an easier road in No. 4 singles for Hollis/Brookline as Tamposi had no trouble against Trainer, winning 8-1.

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